Saint Therese of Lisieux - "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway" Blog

Statue of St. Therese of Lisieux as a Doctor of the Church. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Carmel.

A quarter of a century ago, Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed St. Therese of Lisieux a Doctor of the Universal Church: the youngest Doctor and only the third woman. His reasons, and the reasons of the Church, for doing so are powerfully presented in the Apostolic Letter he issued on that occasion: Divini Amoris Scientia, the "science of the love of God." This document, his homily at the doctoral Mass, and several other documents on which one can fruitfully reflect on this occasion are gathered on my page "Doctor of the Universal Church" on "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway."

So many valuable documents and homilies were offered for that occasion that I want to reflect on what we have experienced, and what Therese has experienced, in her first 25 years as a Doctor.

St. Therese has seen the continued travels of her relics throughout the world. This reverse pilgrimage, in which Therese comes to the people, began in 1994, and continues to this day. It has been greeted with remarkable enthusiasm, and has been an extraordinary experience of grace. Among other places, the relics were received by vast crowds in the United States in 1999, in Ireland (where 75% of the population turned out to venerate them) in 2001, and in Australia (where 400,000 people venerated them) in 2002. More remarkable than the many who came to venerate St. Therese's relics and to pray in their presence has been the atmosphere of deep prayer and the experiences of grace that accompanied them on their travels.
St. Therese has seen her parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, beatified in 2008 and canonized, the first saints canonized as a couple, in 2015. They are a model for achieving holiness as spouses, living out the universal call to holiness of all the baptized, and becoming saints while engaged unreservedly in the life of the family, the Church, and the community.
St. Therese has seen the opening of the cause for the beatification of her sister, Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese of the Visitation at Caen, a woman whose life shows that special-needs persons, abused and wounded persons, and those who find their true vocation only late in life can become whole and holy.

In a broader context, what else has she seen in the years since 1997? Among other things:

the exposure of the clergy sex-abuse crisis all over the world;
in much of the West, a decline in vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.
parishes being merged or closed;
many Christians no longer participating regularly in the life of the Church;
the intensified persecution of Christians throughout the world
the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few individuals, and the consequent growth of poverty in the lives of countless others
division and polarization within and among the nations
an increase in war and violence

In the face of all this, Therese continues to add, by her lived experience, to the deposit of faith. She discerned her vocation "to be love in the heart of the Church" and lived it faithfully in the smallest details of her daily life, putting her faith in God's power to fulfill the apostolate of the contemplative life. In the dark night in which, faced with death, she was tempted to doubt the existence of heaven, she practiced faith to the full and entered into solidarity with unbelievers. She identified passionately with the poor and said that, had she been wealthy, she could not have seen a poor person without giving that person everything she possessed. In her own community and, mysteriously, in the wide world, she was a presence that healed, unified, and reconciled, always reaching out to those on the margins and placing them at the center. No wonder that, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of her birth, which falls on January 2, 2023, UNESCO has recognized her as one of the figures which has worked for peace, science, or education, values important to UNESCO. May the message of love and peace taught by this Doctor of the Church, the message of the gospel, reach the whole world in all its fullness.